Businesses are wrestling over the few graduates with engineering and mining degrees with many turning to China, India, South Africa and Eastern Europe, as well as other related industries, such as construction, to find suitably qualified individuals. While there currently does not seem to be enough suitably qualified graduates to go around, the double-digit increase in applications to UK universities to study engineering suggests that this might be a short-term issue. The importance and relevance of science, technology, engineering and maths now seems to be being recognised by an increasing number of young people. The national educational charity, The Smallpeice Trust, has managed to attract more and more students into engineering and mining. Their two mining and minerals courses at the Universities of Exeter and Leeds have been running for three years, and have been heavily oversubscribed with many students having to be turned away. Indeed, between 2001 and 2009, Smallpeice student numbers grew by a factorof 35 as the Trust increased the number of residential courses and in-school masterclasses to cope with the increasing interest in its engineering courses. Over the last year, the Trust has reached out to nearly 16,000 students.
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